Wolf season is always open in Idaho
Posted: Monday, July 2, 2012
In a move that is sure to
please many hunters and anger wolf advocates, Idaho approved new wolf
hunting regulations that allow the canine predators to be hunted 365
days a year.
It is not a wide open, general hunt. But if one travels around the state, there will always be a place to pursue Canis lupus.
Idaho had allowed 10 months of wolf hunting during
the 2011-2012 season, with the hunt open from Aug. 1 to March 31 in most
of the state and Aug. 1 to June 30 in the Lolo and Selway zones.
That means the 2011-2012 wolf hunting season came to a close at sunset on Saturday. But under the new regulations, the 2012-2013 season opened Sunday morning.
Here's a rundown: Wolf hunting opens in the Panhandle Zone, on private land only, July 1. The rest of the zone and the rest of the state will open to wolf hunting on Aug. 1 and all but the Lolo and Selway zones will close on March 31. The Lolo and Selway zones will again be open through June.
Hunters can take up to 5 wolves per calandar year but most zones have a cap of 2 wolves per hunter, per year. The Middle Fork Zone, Dworshak-Elk City, Palouse-Hells Canyon, Lolo, Selway and Panhandle zones allow hunters to kill 5 wolves per calendar year.
So it is possible to hunt wolves year-round by starting on private land in the Panhandle Zone in July and then hunting anywhere in the state starting Aug. 1, moving to the Lolo and Selway zones on April 1 and back to the Panhandle on July 1.
Of course, if a hypothetical hunter were to does this, he or she would also have to balance when and where the wolves were taken to stay within the 5-per-calander-year bag limit and the more restricted bag limits in zones mostly south of the Salmon River.
The 2012-2013 trapping season will open Nov. 15 and run through March 31 in parts of the Panhandle and McCall-Weiser zones and all of the Lolo, Selway, Dworshak-Elk City and Middle Fork zones. Trappers are allowed to kill 5 wolves per season, not per calendar year.
In the hunting season that started last August and ended Saturday, Idaho hunters took 255 wolves. Trappers killed another 124 wolves in the season that opened Nov. 15 and ran through March. That is a total of 379 wolves out of an estimated minimum population of between 700 and 1,000. However, Idaho Fish and Game officials believe the population exceeds 1,000 animals.
The new hunting and trapping rules are available at http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/docs/rules/bgWolf.pdf
source
It is not a wide open, general hunt. But if one travels around the state, there will always be a place to pursue Canis lupus.
That means the 2011-2012 wolf hunting season came to a close at sunset on Saturday. But under the new regulations, the 2012-2013 season opened Sunday morning.
Here's a rundown: Wolf hunting opens in the Panhandle Zone, on private land only, July 1. The rest of the zone and the rest of the state will open to wolf hunting on Aug. 1 and all but the Lolo and Selway zones will close on March 31. The Lolo and Selway zones will again be open through June.
Hunters can take up to 5 wolves per calandar year but most zones have a cap of 2 wolves per hunter, per year. The Middle Fork Zone, Dworshak-Elk City, Palouse-Hells Canyon, Lolo, Selway and Panhandle zones allow hunters to kill 5 wolves per calendar year.
So it is possible to hunt wolves year-round by starting on private land in the Panhandle Zone in July and then hunting anywhere in the state starting Aug. 1, moving to the Lolo and Selway zones on April 1 and back to the Panhandle on July 1.
Of course, if a hypothetical hunter were to does this, he or she would also have to balance when and where the wolves were taken to stay within the 5-per-calander-year bag limit and the more restricted bag limits in zones mostly south of the Salmon River.
The 2012-2013 trapping season will open Nov. 15 and run through March 31 in parts of the Panhandle and McCall-Weiser zones and all of the Lolo, Selway, Dworshak-Elk City and Middle Fork zones. Trappers are allowed to kill 5 wolves per season, not per calendar year.
In the hunting season that started last August and ended Saturday, Idaho hunters took 255 wolves. Trappers killed another 124 wolves in the season that opened Nov. 15 and ran through March. That is a total of 379 wolves out of an estimated minimum population of between 700 and 1,000. However, Idaho Fish and Game officials believe the population exceeds 1,000 animals.
The new hunting and trapping rules are available at http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/docs/rules/bgWolf.pdf
source
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